Dbeda Forum

It truly brings confusion to non-christians, I understand.
When said however, it doesn't mean we can bestow divine favour on God, no, only him is capable of doing that to us. What it means is, we glorify or thank God, more often, it's used as 'glorify'

I try to avoid it and say I praise God or I thank God instead, not because I find it offensive but because I know others could read another meaning to it.

In addition to what @Ruthk stated above.

Dictionary also has other meanings for bless.

Such as
- Express or feel gratitude to; thank.
-(especially in Christian church services) call (God) holy; praise (God).

You can see from the second meaning that it's about Christian church service, and when they say that, they mean they praise God. You can also use it in place of 'thank' as in the first meaning.

It's what the person saying it means that really matters because that's the intention.

According to Wiktionary, the word Bless has several meanings.

Bless (blesses, present participle blessing; simple past and past participle blest)

1) To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify.
2) To make the sign of the cross upon, so as to sanctify.
3) To invoke divine favor upon.
4) To honor as holy, glorify; to extol for excellence.
5) To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
6) (obsolete) To wave; to brandish.
7) (Perl programming, transitive, past tense only blessed) To turn (a reference) into an object.
8.) (archaic, with from) To secure, defend, or prevent from.
9) (MTE, slang) To give or send.
Could you bless me the link for the original post?
I'm actually marved right now, can you bless me some cash?
10) (transitive) To approve of or assent to.
After those modifications, the Board blessed the reorganization plan.

And I believe it's more or less like that in other dictionaries as well.

So you see, when we say 'I bless God', we are saying 'I glorify or honour God'. - Number 4 above

Only him deserves the glory. The misinterpretation comes in when you think the word 'bless' only has one meaning, which is 'divine favour' - Number 3 above

I often hear people say 'I bless God', especially Christians. I believe only God can bless us and not the other way.
Is it right to say 'I bless God'?